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The Russian Refugee Office in Berlin, presided over by Serge Botkin, represented the interests of exiles in Germany and came to the aid of Anderson (then calling herself Mrs Tschaikovsky). The organization was basically a monarchist support group and the suicidally depressed woman soon found herself embraced by sympathetic exiles, many sending or bringing her flowers, sweets and letters of encouragement.
As the months passed they won her confidence and when released from the asylum she moved in with the first of a long line of supporters, who fed her information and encouraged her delusions. In time an impressive entourage formed around her, at first credulous exiles seeking a sizeable finders fee from the Dowager Empress before yielding to opportunists with sights set on imperial bank accounts. In the years ahead there were constant power struggles, clashes of egos, firing and rehiring, every dispute among them short of murder.
Few of Anna Anderson's supporters were more cunning, knowledgeable or influential than Gleb Botkin; nephew of Serge Botkin and son of the Imperial Family's personal physician Dr Eugene Botkin who perished with his royal patients in the Ipatiev House in 1918.
Gleb Botkin had an intimate knowledge of palace life, having spent much of his youth near the Imperial Family. As such it's impossible he was deceived by Anderson, he must have known she was a fraud and used her for his own aims. Botkin was one of many sources of obscure information Anderson would recount as "memories" to astound friend and foe alike. Beside abundant Russian émigrés another source were dissolute members of the German aristocracy, most having lost their wealth and power with the fall of the Kaiser.
Like most Russian exiles few expected communism to last, the Kronstadt uprising and growing discontentment with Soviet centralism made it seem a counter revolution was inevitable. When it came, as it surely must, who better to restore the old order then the martyred tsar's only surviving child, and who better to counsel her then those with years of political experience? Even if a counter-revolution failed to eventuate, Anderson being acknowledged by courts as the daughter and heir of Nicholas II would undoubtedly have resulted in her being hailed Russia's Empress in exile, regardless of strict imperial laws of succession.
With legal status and power sufficient for her supporters to raise the necessary funds to establish an Imperial Court and Government in exile, opening a politically disastrous can of worms Hitler almost certainly would have commandeered to divide Russia and intended installing as a subservient replacement to the Soviet Union when conquered.
When Anderson was questioned by Romanoff family representatives on specific events of her alleged youth she would frequently change subjects, attempt to bluff her way through or feign an emotional or physical breakdown to gain sympathy and extricate herself.
The fact she couldn't speak or read Russian, English or French at the time like all the tsar's daughters, was sufficient proof for former court tutor Pierre Gilliard she was an impostor, the fact she was unable to remember defining events of "her" life but could rattle off specific details of family bank accounts (including secret passwords) the real Anastasia would never have been told convinced even the most gullible.
Most "memories" she recited are inadmissible as evidence; the colour of palace rooms or furnishings, inane conversations overheard, family routine and other tidbits of trivia were easily obtained from former courtiers and servants among her entourage of expatriate disciples.
Gleb Botkin was a novelist and illustrator by profession and used his talents to almost triumphant effect, writing numerous articles and a book on the validity of Anderson's claims. He also created the prevailing myth the Grand Duchesses Xenia and Olga (sisters of Nicholas II) tried to bribe Anderson to renounce her claim with the offer of a house anywhere in the world and a generous annuity, an impossibility considering their precarious financial situations.
Neither were of independent means and were forced to live as guests of Crowned Heads in Grace & Favour accommodation, Olga later moved to Canada and died in a small apartment above a barber shop while Xenia lived her life in exile as a guest of the British Crown. Neither had the money or will to reward Anderson for being a nuisance, and were outraged the son of heroic Dr Botkin would defame his father's memory and that of the Imperial Family by inventing outlandish stories and attempting to pass a vile impostor off as their dead niece.
Anderson's supporters were also responsible for her childhood "memory" of Alexandra's brother, the Grand Duke of Hesse, visiting Russia during the First World War. Undoubtedly fiction, the allegation tantamount to treason was revenge for his family's intense criticism and opposition to their activities. It spiced up the story and laid the groundwork for conspiracy theories should their legal bids fail, deflecting attention away from their ridiculous case to sinister forces.
Anna Anderson made a good, if not inconstant, living out of being Anastasia. Her entourage perpetually solicited donations from well-heeled Russian expatriates and others, who gave generously. She toured Europe and America, attended fashion shows, was mobbed by the press and feted as a celebrity wherever she went. Living at other peoples' expense in fashionable hotels, Park Avenue apartments and private estates where she socialized with fashionable notables of the day who flocked to parties to see and be seen with her.
Her image was carefully managed like any celebrity and owes a great deal to the literary efforts of devotee Harriet Von Rathlef, whose 1928 portrait "Anastasia, A Woman's Fate as a Mirror of the World Catastrophe" was serialized in a Berlin newspaper which assisted future 'witness identification' by plastering city billboards with photographs of Anderson to promote the series.
In general, journalists took sides, frequently ignoring opposing perspectives which didn't sell newspapers.
Spawning an industry as books, an Oscar winning movie, plays and songs were produced to cash in on Anderson's fame and legitimize the legend. Which even in her reclusive latter years was sufficiently accepted for the then US citizen to receive an invitation from the White House to attend the inauguration of Richard Nixon, which she declined.
From the outset money was the principal objective, and Gleb Botkin became increasingly obsessed with tracing and claiming tsarist assets.
When paranoid legitimate claimants would beat them he urged legal action be taken to have Anderson recognized Nicholas II's heir.
